A pro at procrastination

Hyperbole

Five years ago, I was pregnant with Nuala and we had a stretch of rough weather that resulted in -20 wind chills. Did groceries’ shelves empty of milk, bread, and bottled water? Hell, no. Did they close Notre Dame’s campus? Absolutely not. I groaned alongside everyone else, shuffling from building to building, peering out for only a second at a time to make sure I was pointed the right way before tucking my exposed face back into my scarf/hat/upturned collar. We all lived to tell the tale.

They’ve closed ND’s campus tomorrow and forbidden all vehicles from traveling on South Bend streets until Tuesday, which actually says something about what they’re experiencing of this Arctic blast.

Here, people are frantically tweeting pictures of their lightly iced-over patios and dustings of snow on their cars, accompanied by way too many exclamation points. I get that we don’t have the resources available to deal with this kind of cold like northerners do (high of 2° tomorrow), but for heaven’s sake, it’s only supposed to last a day and a half. We will get through this just fine if everyone will just calm the eff down.

(This is half grumpy-old-woman complaint, half pep talk to get myself to the pool tomorrow morning if the streets aren’t ice rinks and the campus is open.)